week 7 assignment
Cooper2021
AmericanContemporaryLiterature.pptContemporary Literature
(about the1960’s-present)
*A shift from Modernism, which has defined meanings. Modernists wanted to save the world; postmodernists accept its demise and use it for their artistic endeavors.
* A movement of experimentation, with no limitations
- No ultimate meaning can be derived from a text because meaning is always changing; some authors use various strategies to undermine a reader’s traditional expectations.
- The act of reading should be that of play.
- Social constructs are intentionally deconstructed; as Yoshinobu Hakutani states:
Above all, postmodernity in the West can be defined as a new way of thinking in which the established accounts of Western philosophy and history have broken down. The concepts of God, Enlightenment, and science are no longer taken for granted. Human life is no longer seen through such narratives; instead, it is constantly gauged by social dialogue and social action…. Postmodernists…see human knowledge and behavior not through a fixed center of thought and vision, but from various points of view….In postmodernity…the sense of self is weakened, for the writer is inclined to fuse fact and fiction, individual and society, masculinity and femininity, high culture and low culture. (8)
- Attention to the importance of Multiculturalism.
- Other authors still choose to write in a romantic, realist, and/or modern tone.
